I started seeing the psychiatrist that diagnosed me about 15 years ago. My GP told me to get a psychiatrist. Of course as many do, I went in only complaining about anxiety and depression. He gave me Lexapro. [I had taken a couple other antidepressants, and Buspar, very very briefly prior to that for the same reason.] This psychiatrist convinced me to attend his group therapy, that he led. I believe I attended it maybe four times, after starting the Lexapro. By that fourth time, he observed a switch to an irritable hypomania. If I recall correctly, I was talking loudly, rapidly, and aggressively, with some glee and likely grandiosity mixed in. I also said something offensive. I won't write exactly what I yelled, but it was something like "People who own X's are environmental demons and should rot in ever-lasting Hell!" Well, I kind of bet he owned an "X". A lot of people do. When sane, I don't think such people are really that bad, but when on the manic end, I'll readily say such things. At some point before, I also yelled at one of the other patients in the group. Whoops! I swear I'm not a horrible bullying woman, but when I become really irritable with hypomania/mania, this stuff flies from my mouth, like acidic vomit. I've said/yelled much worse. I'm a rather outspoken woman even stable. When impulsivity and disinhibition are involved, it's bad!

At the end of the above-mentioned session, that psychiatrist tapped me on the shoulder and asked me to stay after. I did. He announced that I have "manic depression" and that he needs to take me off of the antidepressant. If I recall correctly, he wanted to put me on Lamictal, which would likely not have been sufficiently helpful alone, anyway. But when he said that, I basically told him to take a hike. I left, with him shoving a brochure about bipolar disorder in my hand, and didn't come back for a year. That was when the you know what really hit the fan, and I was hospitalized for the first time.